BLALOCK CLASSIC CONTINUES TODAY | KC Lady Rangers play at 3; already have 10 wins this season

Longtime Kilgore College basketball fans know, if you put coach Evelyn Blalock’s name on something, you’d better make it good.

And you’d better win.

The Lady Rangers did so, and in convincing fashion, with an 82-41 dusting of Hill College on Thursday on the first day of the Evelyn Blalock Classic, their first game back after the holiday break.

KC is ranked No. 21 in the most recent NJCAA poll.

Games resume today (Friday) at Masters Gymnasium on campus, with Tyler Junior College facing Odessa at 11 a.m.; Panola College taking on Hill at 1 p.m.; and KC facing McLennan at 3. McLennan is ranked No. 10 in that same national poll.

Blalock, of course, was the founder and longtime coach of the women’s basketball program at KC. Coach Blalock, known for her charismatic personality and drive to win, passed after a lengthy battle with cancer in 2011. She was a coach and instructor at Kilgore College from 1965-97, and won three national championships with the program she started in 1979.

Coach Blalock also led the Lady Rangers to six appearances in the NJCAA Women’s National Basketball Tournament, 14 straight appearances in the conference playoffs, and to six conference championships.

She has been nominated on a handful of occasions for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.

Blalock would have been proud of the dominating performance by coach Stephanie Williams’ Lady Rangers on Thursday.

They outscored Hill 23-3 in the first quarter, and led 39-16 at halftime.

Tylissa Henderson wound up leading the Lady Rangers with 17 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

Nakiyah Allen had a double-double: 13 points and 12 rebounds, and also had two assists, two steals and a blocked shot.

Also for KC: Brooklyn King had nine points, three rebounds, and three assists; Camryn Beck had eight points, eight rebounds, and two assists; Kamari Forrest had eight points, as well, to go with two rebounds and a steal; Madison Bob had seven points, four assists, four steals, two rebounds and a block; Anyla Herbert had six points and two rebounds; Deyna Topia had five points and two rebounds; Ja’Sani Green had four points, four rebounds and an assist; Alana Trail had three points and a rebound; Jarahle Daniels had two points, two rebounds, and four assists; and Rhianna Battles didn’t score, but finished with two rebounds.

Kiah Gaynes had 14 points and Jordyn Crawford, 13, for Hill College.

The Lady Rangers are 10-4 this season, 5-0 at home, and haven’t started Region XIV Conference play just yet. They’ll do that Saturday, Jan. 11, though, in Brenham, when they tip off against Blinn at 2 p.m.

Here’s a schedule for the Lady Rangers: 2024-25 Women’s Basketball Schedule – Kilgore College.

The roster for this season, numbers in parenthesis:

Deyna Topia (0), a 5-foot-7 freshman guard from New Zealand; Madison Bob (1), a 5-11 freshman guard from Missouri City; Alana Trail (2), a 5-6 freshman point guard from Houston Shadow Creek; a familiar face to KC fans in sophomore shooting guard Jarahle Daniels (3), from Fairfield; Rhyeli Hendrick (4), a freshman guard from Houston Westside; Rhianna Battles (5), a 5-5 freshman point guard from Alexandria, La.; Camryn Beck (10), a 5-11 forward from Houston Klein Cain; another familiar face, Tylissa Henderson (12), a sophomore forward from Bossier City (La.) Parkway; Brooklyn King (13), a 5-7 freshman guard from Wylie; Taylor Younger (15), a 5-11 freshman forward from Manvel; Anyla Herbert, a 6-foot freshman forward from Grand Prairie; sophomore Kamari Forrest (21), a guard from Saginaw, Mich.; Nakiyah Allen (23), a 5-10 sophomore forward from Boyce, La.; and freshman Ja’Sani Green (25), a freshman forward from Omaha, Neb.

So far this season, the Lady Rangers are averaging 82 points, just under 39 rebounds, and 16 assists per game, and hitting 47 percent of their shots from the floor, and 66 percent of their free throws through 14 games.

Coach Williams is in her third season as KC’s head coach. She came to KC from the head coaching position at Bossier Parish. Williams, from Katy, was a two-time all-state player at Faith West Academy there, and then continued her education and playing career at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall. She played at ETBU for four years, including the 2006-07 season where the Lady Tigers didn’t lose a game in the American Southwest Conference’s East Division.

She began coaching as a student assistant at ETBU after her playing career, and then spent three seasons as an assistant at Texas A&M-Commerce, then as head coach at both North Caddo High and Brook Hill School in Bullard, before returning to the college ranks at Bossier Parish.

Williams is assisted at KC by Brianna Brooks.